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Detailing Ohio State's minor violations, none of which raise any major issues
Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer
November 16, 2012

COLUMBUS ? Ohio State's 27 secondary violations reported in the last five months included six involving the football program, but nothing that would raise alarm.

The request for the latest violations, committed or reported between mid-April and mid-September, was made by The Plain Dealer as a routine check. There was some overlap in what was released from the most recent previous request I made, which was for the 11-month period that ended if mid-April. I made the request of Ohio State on Sept. 19 and the violations were released a week ago.

Ohio State secondary violations

In my hour-long meeting with compliance officials this week for a larger story about the new hires that allow an increased focus on football, Doug Archie, the associate athletic director for compliance, repeated that self-reporting minor violations is part of the OSU culture, so secondary violations are expected.

But since Ohio State's NCAA issues, periodically asking for violations will continue to be a regular part of my coverage of the team. And if I have them, I may as well share them.

Ohio State did not have any violations in this period with either basketball team. Here were the six involving football.

It's a violation of bylaw 17.1.6.2.4 (same one Michigan got busted for under Rich Rod) which states that off-season conditioning cannot include instruction of alignments or plays, and cannot include practice with any equipment related to the sport (there are exemptions for swimming, diving, and ice hockey). Essentially the rule is that conditioning periods are for conditioning, and not practice of sport-specific technique.

As for football, the no-equipment rule effectively includes any item that can be held or tossed with one hand to simulate hand-offs, throwing, or catching, such as mini-basketballs or a rolled up bath towel. I suppose they could get away with it if they want to toss 5-lb kettlebells around or something. Another silly example is that linemen can practice with individual resistance sleds (builds endurance), but they may not practice during the period with a seven-man blocking sled (teaches technique).

So I wonder which Big Ten school or which school the person reported it is affliated with, roots for etc.? Really what was the guy supposed to do? Write on a piece of paper that I can't talk to you? The recruit initiated the contact not the other way around....Jeez...

And we knew there had been a minor recruiting violation involving an OSU assistant and a recruit. That had been mentioned previously by Gene Smith after that batch of violations was provided to The Plain Dealer. Now we know that involved Taver Johnson, who is now an assistant at Arkansas, and Cam Burrows, who has pledged to be a member of Ohio State's 2013 class. It happened on Dec. 7 last year and was discovered by the Big Ten, which told Ohio State on March 2. So someone must have told the Big Ten.Johnson was visiting Burrows' coach at Trotwood-Madison and Burrows saw Johnson as he was leaving and said he wanted to come to an Ohio State practice. Johnson told Burrows to call the football office and stopped talking to him, but even that brief conversation was a secondary violation. The punishment was that Ohio State couldn't talk to Burrows for two weeks this July when the window opened for the Buckeyes to contact him.

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